The Idiot

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A portrait of the artist as a young woman A novel about not just discovering but inventing oneself.The year is 1995, and email is new Selin, the daughter of Turkish immigrants, arrives for her freshman year at Harvard She signs up for classes in subjects she has never heard of, befriends her charismatic and worldly Serbian classmate, Svetlana, and, almost by accident, begins corresponding with Ivan, an older mathematics student from Hungary Selin may have barely spoken to Ivan, but with each email they exchange, the act of writing seems to take on new and increasingly mysterious meanings.At the end of the school year, Ivan goes to Budapest for the summer, and Selin heads to the Hungarian countryside, to teach English in a program run by one of Ivan s friends On the way, she spends two weeks visiting Paris with Svetlana Selin s summer in Europe does not resonate with anything she has previously heard about the typical experiences of American college students, or indeed of any other kinds of people For Selin, this is a journey further inside herself a coming to grips with the ineffable and exhilarating confusion of first love, and with the growing consciousness that she is doomed to become a writer. Free Download The Idiot [ by ] Elif Batuman [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr This was an interesting novel, dense, unique, written from a very specific point of view One of those books where I marvel that it was published and am grateful it was published because, I mean, who wants to read the same type of book over and over As someone who went to college in the 90s, not far from where much of this novel takes place, I felt an unexpected amount of nostalgia for that first year of college where you know nothing but think you know everything and are surrounded by people w This was an interesting novel, dense, unique, written from a very specific point of view One of those books where I marvel that it was published and am grateful it was published because, I mean, who wants to read the same type of book over and over As someone who went to college in the 90s, not far from where much of this novel takes place, I felt an unexpected amount of nostalgia for that first year of college where you know nothing but think you know everything and are surrounded by people who know nothing but also think they know everything This novel is incredibly ambitious There are levels to this shit The Idiot is easy to read and really difficult to read Several times, I thought, I am not smart enough to understand everything that is happening here, but I kept reading So much of the intellectual ...With the abrupt sadness of The Idiot s final sentence, I felt a near physical wrench, as if forcibly separated from someone who had swiftly become a good friend I probably read the second half of the book too quickly I loved it so much, and wish I d takentime to savour it but once I d started, I just couldn t stop.The eponymous idiot is 18 year old Harvard freshman Selin though with all the Russian influences popping up throughout the story, the title is clearly intended to evoke Dos With the abrupt sadness of The Idiot s final sentence, I felt a near physical wrench, as if forcibly separated from someone who had swiftly become a good friend I probably read the second half...2.5 5 Stars.I had a really complicated relationship with this book On the surface, it appears to have everything I enjoy in a novel a quirky protagonist, smart insights, dry humor, a character driven narrative but if I m being honest, it was completely tedious and desperate for someextensive editing.It s a Bildungsroman story about a ...I was ready to give up on The Idiot at page 100 There was no distinct plot nothing major seemed to be happening except for a girl describing her classes at university But I persisted Thank god for that The Idiot is the story of Selin, a student at Harvard in the mid 90s The mid 90s were strange time to be at university Selin begins her tale with th...3.5 This is such an odd debut novel that, though I ultimately thought it a very funny anti Bildungsroman, I d hesitate to recommend it too widely Nostalgia for pre technology college days, some familiarity with Eastern European literature especially the absurdist tradition , and a fascination with linguistic theory and foreign languages would be good prerequisites for enjoying this but then again, none of those criteria are quite valid for me.In brief, this is Selin s account of her freshm 3.5 This is such an odd debut novel that, though I ultimately thought it a very funny anti Bildungsroman, I d hesitate to recommend it too widely Nostalgia for pre technology college days, some familiarity with Eastern European literature especially the absurdist tradition , and a fascination with linguistic theory and foreign languages would be good prerequisites for enjoying this but then again, none of those criteria are quite valid for me.In brief, this is Selin s account of her freshman year at Harvard c 1995 and the summer of travel in Paris, Hungary and Turkey that follows A daughter of Turkish immigrants, she wants to become a writer, but even as she minutely records every happening and thought of her year she doubts the point Is she learning anything ...Part of my warm feelings to this book must be because the author is reflecting so much of my own experience, that era 95 96 of life changing technology and the normalization of the internet right at the gateway to college, with suddenly changing relationships and interactions, especially how email changed flirtations I began to feel that I was living two lives one consisting of emails with Ivan, the other consisting of school Selin is the main character, a Turkish American studying lingui Part of my warm feelings to this book must be because the author is reflecting so much of my own experience, that era 95 96 of life changing technology and the normalization of the internet right at the gateway to college, with suddenly changing relationships and interactions, especially how email changed flirtations I began to feel that I was living two lives one consisting of emails with Ivan, the other consisting of school Selin is the main character, a Turkish American studying lingui...NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS IT S LIKE KNAUSG RD BUT WITH HUNGARIANS.I really hate when books with titles like The Idiot make me feel like I m the person the title is referring to This book is either really smart or faux smart, and I don t feel smart enough to figure out which of the two it is though I m kind of leaning towards faux smart to make myself feel better Side note Faux Smart would be an amazing band name Maybe one word, like Fauxsmart I expect to be credited in the future debut Fauxsmart album I get the sense that this was written in the tra I really hate when books with titles like The Idiot make me feel like I m the person the title is referring to This book is either really smart or faux smart, and I don t feel smart enough to figure out which of the two it is though I m kind of leaning towards faux smart to make myself feel better Side note Faux Smart would be an amazing band name Maybe one word, like Fauxsmart I expect to be credited in the future debut Fauxsmart album I get the sense that this was written in the tradition of some class...This novel is a slow burn, but it s a pleasant warmth not a scorching fire of excitement But it s not meant to be either Batuman has delivered a delightful, excruciatingly smart work of literary fiction that so perfectly captures the confusion of young love For anyone who has ever felt different, or a bit separated from a common reality, THE IDIOT is in your wheelhouse Batuman is a writer s writer, giving us what our brain craves and doesn t waste our time with the cheap thrills that other This novel is a slow burn, but it s a pleasant warmth not a scorc...I suppose it s appropriate that one of the recurring themes in Elif Batuman s The Idiot is the sensation of being trapped in conversation, in a situation, in a location Because about two thirds of the way through this frustrating and tedious novel, I realized I too was trapped too curious to simply jettison the story, all too aware that the plot was heading into everstagnant territory In the end, I couldn t help but feel that the title, although ostensibly a reference to the Dostoyev I suppose it s appropriate that one of the recurring themes in Elif Batuman s The Idiot is the sensation of being trapped in conversation, in a situation, in a location Because about two thirds of the way through this frustrating and tedious novel, I realized I too was trapped too curious to simply jettison the story, all too aware that the plot was heading into everstagnant territory In the end, I couldn t help but feel that the title, although ostensibly a reference to the Dostoyevsky classic, was actually referring to me.It wasn t all bad The first third of the book was actually pretty great, whether because of my own nostalgia for my freshman ye...

The Idiot
  • English
  • 21 September 2017
  • Hardcover
  • 423 pages
  • 1594205612
  • Elif Batuman
  • The Idiot